How to Know Which Part of Speech to Use

Remember the building blocks of English grammar? The 8 parts of speech: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection. Youve been learning a little bit about them. But knowing their names is not enough; you need to know when and how to use each part of speech.

PART OF SPEECH
noun pronoun verb adjective adverb preposition conjunction interjection

DESCRIPTION
a person, place or thing takes the place of a noun an action or a state of being describes a noun or pronoun describes a verb, adjective or another adverb links a noun/pronoun to other words in a sentence joins two parts of a sentence shows strong emotion

QUESTIONS THE PART OF SPEECH ANSWERS Who? What? Who? What? Whats happening? Whats it like? Which one? How many? What kind? Whose? How? Where? When? Why? Whats the relationship of this noun to that? Connects two parts of a sentence so shows their relationship (cause and e ect, contrast, etc.) Interrupts a sentence, an exclamation

Guidelines to help you sort out your grammar: Words ending in -tion or -ment are usually nouns; words ending in -ly are almost always adverbs; words ending in -ful or -ous are usually adjectives; words ending in -ize and -ate are usually verbs.

Whenever you have a, an, the or a number or a word like my, his, their you need a noun. Any word that substitutes for a noun is a pronoun. We use pronouns so that we dont have to keep repeating the noun. Adjectives describe nouns: a big, red house; a long, dusty road Adjectives usually come before the nouns they describe. Adverbs describe verbs (and they can also describe adjectives and other adverbs): the man ran quickly; the policeman looked at him suspiciously. Adverbs usually come after the verbs they describe. Prepositions tell where something is in relation to something else: the cat is in the tree; the cat is under the tree; the cat is beside the tree; the cat is behind the tree. There are over 100 prepositions in English thats a lot, especially when you think that some languages only have 2 or 3 prepositions! Remember the tree and that will help you recognize them. Conjunctions are like glue that sticks things together. Join your sentences with and, but, for or because when the two parts of your sentence both have a subject and a verb of their own. There are lots more conjunctions to learn, but better to start with these. e e e e

INTERNET RESOURCES:
http://www.educationalrap.com/song/parts-of-speech.html
Check out this rap song about the parts of speech! A quiz on the parts of speech

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/parts-of-speech_quiz.htm http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/parts-of-speech_quiz.htm
A song with animation to help you understand which words are nouns

http://grammarheads.com/store/index.php?cPath=23 http://library.thinkquest.org/5585/speech.htm http://library.thinkquest.org/5585/speech.htm

Free videos, one for each of the parts of speech, with music by an animated band The Grammarheads This website made by students for students (especially LOTR fans)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic/sentence-structure

Watch the one-minute video about sentence structures and then try the games Spot the sentence and Make a sentence.

www.ohmyenglish.com.my